Game rules

Rising Sun rules: how to play and how to score

Reviewed on 20 October 2026 against the publisher’s rulebook. How we check

Rising Sun plays 3 to 5 players: each leads a clan of legendary Japan, between one-Season Alliances and Battles won with secret bids. Here are the essential rules, setup and final scoring, based on CMON’s official rules.

Players: 3 to 5, up to 6 with Dynasty Invasion
Play time: About 2 hours
Winner: The clan with the most Victory Points after Winter

Rising Sun quick rules

The goal: Three Seasons, then Winter ends the game. You score Victory Points by Harvesting Provinces, winning Battles and through your cards. The clan with the most at the end of Winter wins.
A Season: Setup, with the Battle Provinces drawn at random, the Season cards and your income; then the Tea Ceremony, the Political Phase and the War Phase. At the end of the Season, Coins and Ronin go back to the supply.
The Tea Ceremony: Two players who both agree become Allies for the Season. An Ally gets your Mandate Bonuses, and two Allies alone in a Province do not fight. Deals are not binding.
Mandates: The player with the deck draws four Mandates and chooses one: everyone performs it, and they and their Ally get its Bonus. Recruit, Marshal, Train, Harvest, or Betray, which replaces two enemy figures with yours and breaks your Alliance.
The Kami: A recruited Shinto may go worship at one of the four Shrines. Three times per Season, the strongest clan at each Shrine gains its Kami’s ability.
The War Phase: Province by Province, in the order drawn. A clan alone takes the War Province token; several non-allied clans fight. Each secretly bids Coins on four War Advantages: Seppuku, Take Hostage, Hire Ronin, Imperial Poets.
Winning a Battle: The Advantages are resolved in order, then the strongest clan wins the token; the losers’ figures are killed, except those of the winner’s Ally. The winner shares the Coins they bid among the losers.
Honor: The Honor Track breaks every tie. Seppuku and some Kami earn Honor; betraying your Ally costs it.
Winter and final scoring: Add Winter cards, War Province tokens worth 1, 2 or 3 points by Season, and a bonus of 10, 20 or 30 points for different Provinces. Tie: Honor; two tied Allies share the victory.
Beginner pitfalls: Spend your Coins before the Season ends, win Battles with bids as much as numbers, aim for different Provinces, and beware of an Ally who chooses Betray.

How to score Rising Sun

Victory Points before Winter: Your Victory Points at the end of Autumn: Harvests, Battles, Kami, cards. Marker flipped: add 50.
Winter Upgrades: The points from your Winter Season cards, per their criteria.
War Province tokens: 1 point per token won in Spring, 2 in Summer, 3 in Autumn.
Different Provinces: Among your tokens, duplicates excluded: 3 or 4 Provinces, 10 points; 5 or 6, 20 points; 7 or 8, 30 points.
Honor rank: Tiebreaker: the highest on the Honor Track wins. Two tied Allies share the victory.

Worked example

Jake ends Autumn on 41 points. His Winter cards score 6. He has 2 Spring tokens, 1 Summer and 3 Autumn: 2 + 2 + 9 = 13 points. These 6 tokens cover 5 different Provinces: 20 points. Total: 41 + 6 + 13 + 20 = 80 points.

Common mistakes

Forgetting to multiply tokens by their Season: an Autumn token is worth 3.
Counting duplicates in the different Provinces bonus.
Saving Coins for the next Season: they are lost at cleanup.
Looking for a tiebreaker other than Honor.

How to set up Rising Sun

Follow the three parts in order; expansion steps only apply if you play them. The clan at the top of the Honor Track plays the first Mandate.

Clans

Each player chooses a clan and takes its clan screen, with the Political/War tile Political side up.
Sit in the order of the clans’ Starting Honor Rank.Lowest Rank, then the next one to their left; this order never changes.
Place one marker on the first slot of the Victory Point Track, and the other on the Honor Track by your starting Rank.
Take your Daimyo, 3 Shinto and 6 Bushi: this is your reserve.With your bases, 4 Strongholds and Alliance token.
In your Home Province, place your Daimyo, 1 Bushi and 1 Stronghold.
Dynasty Invasion: the Sun and Moon clans let you play with up to six.

Kami and Seasons

Shuffle the 7 Shrine tiles and place 4 face up.First game: Amaterasu, Fujin, Hachiman and Tsukuyomi.
Make three decks with the Core Season cards: Spring, Summer, Autumn.
Add to each deck the 5 cards of its Season from one of the three Sets.Each deck then has 12 cards.
Dynasty Invasion: if the Sun or Moon is in play, keep the 7 Lucky God cards.
Monster Pack: keep the Extra Monster cards, sorted by Season.

The board

Sort the War Province tokens by Season into three face-down piles of 8; place the War Number tokens nearby.
Shuffle the 10 Mandate tiles face down into a pile.
Place the Monsters next to the board and make a supply of Coins and Ronin tokens.
The clan at the top of the Honor Track takes the Mandate deck.

Frequently asked questions

How many Seasons does Rising Sun last?

Three Seasons, Spring, Summer and Autumn; Winter is only for final scoring.

How does a Battle work in Rising Sun?

Each clan secretly bids Coins on Seppuku, Take Hostage, Hire Ronin and Imperial Poets; then the strongest wins the Province.

How much is the Province bonus worth in Rising Sun?

10 points for 3 or 4 different Provinces, 20 for 5 or 6, 30 for 7 or 8.

Ludingo’s Rising Sun sheet was last reviewed on 20 October 2026, based on: cmon.com, BoardGameGeek.